Star Wars Bits: Mark Hamill Shares a Few Stories, a New ‘Star Wars’ Video Game Is Announced, and the Original Role of Boba Fett is Revealed

Mark Hamill talks about reading the screenplay for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The original role of Boba Fett is finally revealed.

Mondo releases a cool C-3PO art print.

Dave Filoni teases the return of a certain helmet on Star Wars Rebels.

Chuck Wendig shares a tiny taste of Star Wars: Aftermath – Life Debt.

Claudia Gray reveals secrets about Star Wars: Bloodline.

Everything you need to know about Korr Sella.

EA and Respawn announce a new Star Wars video game.

Story details from LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens come to light.

Fantasy Flight Games reveals the latest X-Wing expansion.

The actor behind Greedo defends the character’s honor.

Preview pages from Marvel’s The Force Awakens comic book.

Plan to drop to cash on Star Wars-themed tiki mugs.

Mark Hamill recently sat down for a sprawling interview with The Sun, where he talked all about the process of making The Force Awakens and what lies ahead. He recounts the first time he read the screenplay:

I read the script on a little iPad with a security man with me so I couldn’t take notes … The first few words in the crawl are ‘Luke Skywalker has vanished’ and I thought, ‘Boy, this is going to be good!’ I thought, ‘Good, I’m going to have one of those 11th-hour entrances.’ I wanted impact. I wanted to affect the storyline.

And he recounts the first time he watched the finished film:

The very first time I saw the film was at the premiere in Los Angeles, even though I was invited to see it before that at a little screening room. I would rather see it with a full audience. I thought it was amazing what they were able to do. It worked on the level for somebody who had never seen one of those films before.

Inverse has posted a fascinating interview with Craig Miller, Lucasfilm’s first fan relations officer, and he reveals that Boba Fett was originally a much larger character in the original trilogy. In fact, he claims that the Mandalorian Bounty Hunter was going to be the chief villain of Return of the Jedi, with the final confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader saved for another trilogy:

Originally Boba Fett was set up in Empire as a character, and the third movie’s plot was going to be more about Boba Fett rescuing Han Solo and all of that. Boba was gonna be the main villain… That was set up, why he was taking Han Solo away, why there was a thing with him in the Christmas special.

When George decided not to make a third trilogy, he completely jettisoned that story line, which is why in the first ten minutes, Boba Fett gets bumped into and falls into the mouth of a giant monster. So he took what was planned for the third trilogy, which was the confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader, and the battle with the Emperor, and that got squished down from three movies to one movie. And that became the plot of Jedi.

This should be taken with a grain or salt or two since Lucas’ original plans for the Star Wars series seemed to change based on which direction the wind was blowing on a given day, but this is just plain fascinating.

Mondo is currently selling a timed edition of this Mike Mitchell C-3PO portrait, which means that anyone who wants one get it as long as they order within the allotted timeframe. By the time you’re reading this, time will be running short, so act fast if you want one. The poster is a 12″ x 16″ giclee and will cost you $55.

Star Wars Rebels may be on summer hiatus following its season two finale, but executive producer Dave Filoni used Star Wars Day as an excuse to tease the upcoming third season. Specifically, he took to Twitter to reveal that Star Wars: The Clone Wars veteran Captain Rex will once again return to Rebels and that he’s bringing his distinctive helmet with him. Filoni has previously announced that he will be making a big announcement about this show at Star Wars Celebration in July, so keep your eyes and ears open.

Star Wars: Bloodline is available to purchase and read right now (and I’ll have a deeper look at the book going up sometime next week), but Star Wars: Aftermath – Life Debt is waiting in the wings with a release date of June 12. Author Chuck Wendig celebrated Star Wars Day by sharing the first line of the book on his personal blog and after more than a few jokes and false starts, it was revealed to be: